Name: Salmon Souffle
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons butter; 3 tablespoons flour; ¾ cup milk; 3 eggs; ½ teaspoon salt; cayenne pepper to taste; 1 cup flaked salmon

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salmon Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the base

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the flour and stir until smooth.
Gradually add the milk and seasonings, cooking for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and mix in the beaten egg yolks and flaked salmon.
Allow the mixture to cool.

Bake and serve

Once cool, fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 25 minutes.
Serve immediately after removing from the oven.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + salmontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Egg whites and yolks provide the structure that lifts and sets the soufflé as it bakes.
Flour: Flour thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the soufflé base together.
Butter: Butter, cooked with the flour, forms the roux that gives the base its body and richness.
Milk: Milk combines with the roux to form a thick base that carries the other ingredients.
Flaked salmon: Flaked salmon adds the main flavour and a tender texture throughout the soufflé.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped and folded gently; stirring them in roughly deflates the mixture, so the soufflé will rise less and bake denser. The base must also be cool first, since warm base can collapse the whites.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.